Month: March 1957

Perhaps the hope for an ideal man of the future is the fact that the man of now is dissatisfied with himself and the society he has created. To the person uncertain of himself, we feel like giving sympathy. To the one who is always certain of himself, we generally feel like giving nothing. But we cannot have healthy minds and healthy bodies except in a healthy society. And, whether we like it or not, it is difficult to see how we can have saved personalities (whatever that means) apart from a saved society. And we cannot have a sound society unless we remove the conditions that make slaughterhouses of men’s personalities. In surveying any proposal for social change, we can do well to use Karl Menninger’s test: “Does it promote love and diminish hate?”

But some creeds, like Pilate, wash their hands of any connection with social change and reform. Many creeds are exclusive, those who hold them seeming to say, “You do not believe as we do, therefore you are not one of us and cannot be right.” How much more sensible to say, “Come and study with us and let us see if we cannot find common principles and procedures to reach a common goal. But we go on, maximizing creedal differences and minimizing creedal similarities, until we find even church groups so far apart that they no longer act like church groups.

Yet, is it not true that experience, study, and reflection lead us to accept the true as sacred? We can reverence others without reverencing what they reverence. Not our conclusions but out behavior should excite admiration and command affection. Most churches find it difficult if not impossible to free themselves sufficiently from creedal dogma to enable them to look realistically at the world about them. A church freed from dogma well could have many functions. It could assist people in their search for intellectual validity. It could promote and defend social righteousness. It should provide people an opportunity to enter into a growth-into-love experience. We are more than fellow pupils; we are a fellowship pledged to love one another, without regard to creed.

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The Divinity School of the University of Chicago has made reference in some materials that reached me this week, to a sermon delivered by the famous Dr. Martin Niemoller. In it, the doctor confesses that no one can prove that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, but he goes on to urge that all accept that proposition because it is, in his words, “an impossible thesis.” He thinks, as his sermon illustrates, that a Christian should abandon the promptings of experience and reason and “defy the so-called law of nature” and become “God’s obedient child.”

Maybe the Divinity School’s version of it was not exact. Let us hope not. As I read the above, I could not help but wonder if this preacher were insane. Are God and God’s creation at war with each other? If God is in all and through all, are not nature, experience, and reason manifestations of God? Are not those acting as “God’s children,” to use Niemoller’s symbolic language? How can one act as “God’s obedient child” by opposing what we know of God’s creation and evolution? I do not know the answers to these questions, I merely ask them. But even I can see the contradiction in the sermon, even if it comes from someone as famous as Niemoller. Should we become unreasonable in the name of or because of piety? Is such unreason “piety”?  Or is it something else less commendable? All of this is about as sensible as the central theme of the movie entitled “A Man Called Peter.”

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In New Jersey recently, a suit was successfully fought against an inter-faith baccalaureate service planned by the Bergenfield High School senior class. Father Edward McGuirk of St. John’s Roman Catholic Church said not long ago, “We believe that the time-honored custom of keeping religion out of the public schools must be maintained.” But various types of combination of public education and religious teaching go on, call it religious emphasis days or weeks or by any other name, the principle is the same. We talk about separation of church and state, then turn around and combine them. In such cases, our talk is so much lip service to a principle that we really do not believe in. Wonder when we’ll either quit talking about it or quit violating it? I seem to recall that a lowly Galilean said nearly 2,000 years ago, “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s.” Looks as if we are trying to pay tribute to both in the same breath.

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Last summer Communist China invited 18 American reporters for a visit, but our State Department refused. Recently two newsmen from Look magazine and one from the Baltimore Afro-American went there anyway. The State Department announced that their passports were being suspended except for the trip home, and some U.S. officials hinted that the three would be indicted under the Trading with the Enemy Act because they had paid for living expenses in China. All the arguments of the Secretary of State for the government’s policy have, and rightly, been angrily rejected by leading newspapers in this country and by such groups as the overseas press clubs. Leonard R. Boudin put the issue squarely and sharply in a recent letter to The New York Times in which he said, in part, “The State Department’s announcement that it will revoke the passports of American correspondents in China raises important questions of law and public policy. No statute, executive order, or departmental regulation makes it unlawful to visit China or any other country. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 prohibits citizens, during a period of national emergency, from leaving or entering the United States without a passport…. These newsmen were entitled to visit China for two reasons. First, as American citizens they may exercise their ‘power of locomotion,’ as Blackstone called it, outside this country as well as within it, whether their purpose be amusement, education or business. That right is still being obstructed by the department’s passport policy despite the repeated judicial criticism these last three years. Secondly, the public has a right to information on public issues from on-government sources. To forbid our newsmen to see for themselves is no less censorship than to proscribe or punish their writings.” Whatever one may think of communists or Communist China is beside the point. Ours is supposed to be a government of law, not one of arbitrary policy by an appointed official. That is the communist’s way of doing things.

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Some of you have expressed to me orally and otherwise some curiosity as to why so much time on this program is devoted to the matter of civil rights. Frankly, it is a matter of curiosity to me as to why you are curious about the matter. In reply, I should like to call your attention to the 36^th Annual Report of the American Civil Liberties Union which has just reached me recently. The title of the report this year is not only provocative; it indicated why the matter of civil rights is always a fundamental problem. The title is “Liberty is Always Unfinished Business.” In it are treated developments over the past year such as the following: “freedom of belief, speech, and association, including freedom of religion and conscience,” academic freedom, “the importance of diversity,” “justice before the law.” And the feminine element will be interested to know that it deals with their rights or lack of them, and violation of such rights during 1956.

In connection with the question of civil rights, a colleague of mine from Yankee-land made the comment a short time ago that the term “civil rights” does not mean a thing here in the South. I’ve thought about this a great deal, for I’m sure that what he really meant by his statement is true, namely, that there are more violations of civil rights in the South than elsewhere. It is in the South where the “right-to-work” laws have gained most headway; it is in the South where there is more racial, religious, and cultural intolerance than anywhere else in the United States. We as Southerners may not like this, but if we insist otherwise, our insistence is based on wishful thinking rather than upon informed conclusion. But it is not only in the South that civil rights are violated. Differences in violations are matters of degree, not kind. And individual liberties are everybody’s business, or should be. For freedom of speech, thought, belief, assembly, and all the others means freedom for those who disagree with you as much as freedom for ourselves. And until we become as concerned about the freedom of those we differ with as of those with whom we agree, not even our own freedom is safe. There is no such thing as a second-class citizen under the Constitution, whether we agree with his belief or not.

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Roman Catholic circles this week welcomed the news that the Chinese communists had finally released the Rev. Fulgence Gross from house arrest in Shanghai. The 53-year-old Franciscan missionary from Omaha, Nebraska, was arrested in 1951 on spy charges in connection with the Korean War. Most of the six years imprisonment resulting from his so-called conviction were spent in a Chinese prison. However, nearly one year ago, he and others arrested with him were transferred to house arrest. Father Gross said the Chinese Reds had assured him he might leave the country, and that he hoped to return soon to the U.S. His trial and imprisonment behind him, Father Gross preferred not to discuss them; not yet, at least. But he said he and the others were well fed and permitted to see each other at all times.

Of the five other Americans remaining under house arrest in Shanghai, four are also Catholic missionaries. And there is no word when they are to be set free. They are the Reverends John Houle of Glendale, California; Charles McCarthy of San Francisco, California; Joseph McCormack of Ossining, New York and John Wagner of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

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Plans were made this week by the Methodist Church’s Board of Social and Economic Relations for a large scale national conference on race relations. Tentative plans are to hold the conference probably late in 1959, although the specific time and place remain to be selected. Concerning the subject, Dr. Clarence La Rue of Columbus, Ohio, termed race relations the outstanding problems confronting the church. Dr. La Rue, who is chairman of the board’s committee on race relations, pointed out that significant gains have been made in recent years.

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New York: Thirty-five major denominations and communions of Protestant churches join today in nationwide services called “One Great Hour of Sharing.” The services are held with special offerings made to support overseas relief and reconstruction programs of the various churches. This is the ninth year in which the Protestant denominations have cooperated through Church World Service in programs to aid the needy abroad. At the same time, the Roman Catholic churches are holding similar services in response to an appeal of what is called the “Bishop’s Relief Fund.” And most Jewish communities are engaged in their appeal for the “Emergency Rescue Fund” of the United Jewish Appeal.

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Washington: Religious leaders are planning to appeal to Secretary of Agriculture Benson to cut the red tape that hampers private relief agencies from distributing surplus U.S. food to families abroad. Spokesmen for Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish overseas relief organizations will meet with Benson on Monday, tomorrow, to present a joint plea. They will also ask him to make available additional types of surplus foods from government storage bins to provide better balanced diets for millions of undernourished people.

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Vatican City: Pope Pius says the great work of building a united Europe is possible only if strong religious forces enliven its member nations. The pope, a long-time advocate of European integration, told a group of West Germans that the state is no end unto itself, because all authority springs for the Creator. Well, without intending to argue with the pontiff, the question does present itself: What about such authority as that exercised by Hitler?

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All of us have heard, read, thought about the current mess being aired to the point of exhaustion that apparently exists in the Teamsters’ Union, an AFL, and now also a CIO affiliate. Numerous friends of mine, knowing my own affiliation with the AFT, an AFL affiliate, have asked my opinion. I have no opinion on the guilt or innocence of Mr. Beck. That is a matter that should be tried in a court of law according to due process. If he has not been criminal, he certainly has been either negligent or stupid, and therefore unfit to head a great labor organization. Some have said, “Well, if he is guilty, that is no worse than some corporation executives have done.” Maybe so, but a wrong is wrong, whether committed by a member of a labor union or one who belongs to the National Association of Manufacturers.

In Washington, church leaders are resorting to the weapon of political action in an effort to save the U.S. foreign aid program from being cut sharply by the Congress. The governing board of the National Council of Churches has appealed to half-a-million local ministers across the country explain the church position on foreign aid to their congregations and to urge members to write their congressman.

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Milwaukee, Wisconsin: A Catholic chaplain says parents must prepare their children to hold marriage together and stabilize family life. The Rev. Alexander Sigur says parents must, as he puts it, “provide the pattern of character integrity, personality fulfillment, individual and family stability which radiates far more effectively than all other education.” Of course this is true of not only Catholic parents; some Protestant ones well could heed his suggestions. For all children have a right to expect more from their parents than many are getting. Parental selfishness must bear the blame for much so-called juvenile delinquency of today, delinquency in the form of normal family life deprivation as well as delinquency in the form of behavior of young people.

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Washington: An organization of Catholic bishops says the number of Catholic Negroes in the U.S. has almost doubled in the past quarter century. The organization says there are now 530,000 Negroes among the 16 million Negro population who are members; while of the nearly 400,000 American Indians, some 110,000 are Catholic.

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Chicago: A Methodist bishop charges that there is rigorous isolationism based on color in top educational and artistic circles. Bishop Lloyd C. Wicke, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, criticized both cultural and religious leaders for what he called discrimination attitudes in artistic and education circles. He also said there is color discrimination in Pittsburgh’s 120-member symphony orchestra.

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Rome, Italy: Italian Protestants have scored a major victory in their years-long battle against police restrictions. A decision by the constitutional court has upheld their right to perform religious ceremonies without giving advance notice to police. It ruled the prior notification order is unconstitutional as applied to religious functions.

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Washington: The world president of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church has appealed to members throughout the world to pray on March 30 for Christians being persecuted in Colombia, South America. The president, R.R. Figuhr, charges that severe and prolonged persecution had been directed against Protestant Christians in Columbia over a period of years. In recent months, he says, this has increased in both severity and extent.

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Washington: The government’s Social Security Administration says more than half the U.S. clergymen have been given Social Security coverage. But the agency warns that April 15 is the deadline for those still out. An administration spokesman says estimates of clergymen in the U.S. vary from 164,000 to 200,000, and about 100,000 have decided to go into the program.

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Many Protestant churches throughout the U.S. begin today a week of special emphasis on the ministry of the churches to the homeless, hungry, and destitute persons of foreign lands. On next Sunday, March 31, special offerings will be made in response to this year’s “One Great Hour of Sharing.” The $11.5 million appeal is sponsored by the Department of Church World Service of the National Council of Churches. Through this service, 35 denominations and communions cooperate in ministries of compassion to those in distress overseas.

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Philadelphia: A Chicago Baptist minister has urged his fellow members to move together against segregation and discrimination. The Rev. Dr. J.J. Jackson added, “In a time like this, every believer is challenged.” He was among the speakers at the Philadelphia Baptist Association, which marked its 250^th anniversary.

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A two-day session of exploring “the current Jewish revival” will be held in New York City today and Monday. Leaders of the three branches of Judaism – Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform – will take part.

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Vatican City: Pope Pius is reported in excellent health following his latest routine medical checkup. The pope was examined on Wednesday by Swiss specialist Paul Niehans. On Thursday, the pope appointed Monsignor Joseph McGeough, a native of New York City, as the Vatican’s first diplomatic representative to Ethiopia. Monsignor McGeough has been attached to the Vatican Secretariat of State since 1938.

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Knoxville, Tennessee. The Rev. Robert H. Manning, rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church of Mt. Prospect, Chicago, declared this week that conversion is more than a change of mind, that it involves the whole orientation and resetting of the personality; whether the change is sudden or gradual, it must be lifelong. Such a statement is refreshing, for so many people apparently believe that this thing called conversion is something that takes place in an instant, and that the person, presumably previously the worst of scoundrels, becomes through relatively little effort of his own, a veritable saint. Such notions are the sheerest of nonsense. The most that can happen instantaneously is a change of mind as to direction. The rest is up to the individual. And for most of us this rest involves a long, long struggle toward an ever-higher plane of living. But, the good Reverend [Manning] goes on, this conversion is, contrary to the usual assumption, something that involves the amendment of life by God. This, too, is mere gibberish. If such were true, then all one would have to do would be to sit and wait until God acted, and if no action was forthcoming, then the responsibility for lack of it would be upon the divinity.

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Catholic-Protestant sources of tension and conflict were dealt with in a recent article in America, a Jesuit weekly publication. The contents were too controversial to be cleared for broadcast over CBS’s Church of the Air radio show, but they involved three major elements.

One was the matter of birth control. Some Protestants look upon this as a positive virtue, while the Catholic Church views this practice as contrary to natural law. Another major difference is the attitude toward parochial schools. The right to educate his child in a Catholic school is an undisputed one of the Catholic parent, but, Catholics complain, Protestants often misunderstand the parochial school and regard it as a divisive influence in American society. The third source of misunderstanding, according to the publication, is the matter of censorship. The Legion of Decency and the National Office for Decent Literature do not regard themselves as censors. Rather, the magazine insists, they publish moral appraisals of movies and books. But they are looked upon by Protestants as intolerant. And, what is more, Protestants often feel impelled to go see a movie just because Catholics have condemned it.

Father Davis, writer of the article of protest, prescribes that Protestants and Catholics get together and talk over not merely their differences, but also the vast areas of agreement on matters of common concern. And he thinks that Catholics should take the initiative in this.

Well, a quick appraisal of the record on these three items seems justified at this point. As a Protestant affiliate, this reporter takes the attitude that is probably shared by most that birth control is a matter of individual decisions and that there is little if any religious or moral significance attached to it. However, he reserves to the Catholic the right to take a different view as long as he, too makes it an individual affair and does not attempt to impose his views on others against their will and judgment. But Protestants themselves ordinarily do not understand completely the official attitude the Catholic Church has taken in the matter, but assume that it is opposed to such control in any form, which is not true.

Our ignorance of our Catholic colleagues is profound also with respect to parochial church schools. And often we fail to keep in mind that Protestants too maintain church schools to which children are sent, though mainly these are beyond the high school level. Church schools of all faiths have done much to give variety and richness to our educational pattern, and nobody can seriously question the probable force for good they have been in emphasizing religious and moral aspects of education which the public schools, by their vary nature cannot or should not do. But the good father is less complete in his insistence that the Legion of Decency has not engaged in censorship. Movies have been banned many times because of pressure exerted by the legion and members of the Catholic Church, following the legion’s lead and recommendations. “The Miracle,” “Martin Luther,” and others readily come to mind. Both Protestants and Jews themselves have not been blameless in this matter. For example, some years ago Jews tried to prevent presentation of the picture “Oliver Twist” because it portrayed a leading character, a Jew, in an unflattering role. Nobody questions the right of the Catholic Legion of Decency to appraise the moral tone of movies and books to let the public know what its attitude is. But, when it tries, and sometimes succeeds, in bringing pressure on communication media to prevent those who do not agree with its appraisals from seeing movies or having access to purchase of books it would ban, it is going beyond the bounds of its right in our scheme of things. Most Americans do not want censorship, whether it comes from a church-affiliated organization, or from any other pressure group in the community.

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A short lesson in theology came to my attention this week that contains enough food for serious thought that I should like to see what you think of it. It goes like this: “On six days a week we live in an ordered solar system where cause and effect are operative. On Sundays thousands go to church and enter a world of make-believe, where axes float, asses talk with their masters, gods become men and men become gods, people walk on water, the dead come to life, and virgins have babies.” Why is it that we want to think about, but definitely not to think through our religious beliefs? Do we not dare subject such beliefs to the same rigid scrutiny we give to more mundane and secular affairs? Perhaps it is this inability or unwillingness of so many of us to do so that is making Christianity lose perhaps the biggest opportunity in its history, namely to apply its inherent qualities realistically to the social and moral needs of an industrialized society. Instead of doing this, we become even more emotional and subjective, and the cult of religiosity becomes a fetish with many, and the Peale-Graham-Sheen axis gains in popularity for the unthinking mass that wants to feel rather than think. Was it not the Master himself who said that “In that day many will say here he is or there he is,” but believe them not. And from the same source came the assurance that if ye know the truth, the truth shall make ye free. How many of us are objectively seeking truth, and how many of us mistake simply what we want to believe as truth?

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Which leads to a final item, an excerpt from Bertrand Russell, whom few would call orthodox in religion. He says,

“The skepticism that I advocate amounts only to this: 1. That when the experts are agreed, the opposite opinion cannot be held to be certain; 2. That when they are not agreed, no opinion can be regarded as certain by a non-expert; and 3. That when they all hold that no sufficient grounds for a positive opinion exist, the ordinary man would do well to suspend judgment. These propositions may seem mild, yet if accepted, the would revolutionize human life.”

A viewpoint on the matter of values in education came into the news this week, with a resolution sponsored by Rep. David Givens of Fayette County and 28 others who urged Tennessee schools to put more stress on what they called fundamental and less on frills in Tennessee colleges and high schools. This resolution criticized state colleges for giving credit in such subjects as social dancing, tumbling, and the fundamental and techniques of soccer and speedball. Nothing was said about ping pong and tiddlywinks. Perhaps this was an inadvertent omission.

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And along the same line comes an excerpt by President Edwin S. Burdell of Cooper Union, New York, which says:

“Our American democracy has fought shy of elite groups, whether by birth, wealth, or brains. We have promoted an egalitarianism which runs the risk of defeating our efforts to meet our more pressing needs. Our teachers are paid less than our factory workers, and their station in life financially is rated not much above that of the common … salesman. Occasionally waves of anti-intellectualism threaten to stifle the exploration of the unknown, whether physical or social…. The recent fad of applying the term “egghead” to anyone who displays … intellectual ability seems to imply distrust of the intellectual as a sort of misfit in a mass of conformity…. The development of potential brain power of intellectually superior men and women is our greatest need….

“The crux of the problem is how to discover those most talented youths and to motivate them to seek the education … needed to cope with the increasingly complex situation [of the world we live in]. If society is to survive, it must be as much concerned with the man of brains and integrity as it is with enlightenment of the masses of mankind.”

Thus ends the words of the good doctor, but he is saying what many teachers have thought but feared to say in recent years. They have been dismayed as they have seen such panaceas as social promotions, life adjustment curricula, and other such nonsense prescribed as cure-alls for educational ills, and many times they have had to administer the medicine when they had little faith in its healing qualities. Educational theorists have been more concerned with educational problems than they have with the problems of education, and there is a vast difference. If the moral tone of the social order is to be improved through education, it is about time that more reason and less rationalization is utilized in developing and carrying out educational programs. As far as I know, nobody has as yet announced discovery of a process that will transmute zircons into diamonds, but diamonds can be polished by the proper process.

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Frederick May Elliot, writing in The Christian Register for December 1956 contributes the following thought-provoking comments:

“’Man,’ wrote Prof. Harlow Shapely recently, ‘is a stubborn adherent to official dogma, and official dogma is more powerful in religion than in any other area of human concern. This may be natural, because religion is more vitally concerned with the deepest emotional life than any other element in human experience, but it is nonetheless regrettable….

“It is now more than a hundred years since William Ellery Channing laid down the principles for a religious education that would be consistent with a liberal point of view in religion…. But it is only comparatively recently that anything like a majority of religious people has made his principles a basis for practice in our churches.

“But a few are on the road to that victorious outcome. And nothing is more deeply heartening today than the response of an entire generation of young parents to the program of religious education which owes much of its initial impulse to Channing. Out of this breakthrough may well come the greatest onward surge that liberal religion has known from the beginning of its history.

“Here is, as I see it, the chief contribution which our churches can make to the advancement of mankind…. We can demonstrate that religion is the ally and not the enemy, of progress in thought; that the mind of man is mightier than its own inertia; that the barriers can be thrown down in the name of faith. That is our opportunity today.”

He was talking about the Unitarian religious philosophy. Few other denominations, including my own, have been bold and imaginative enough to do this.

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All of us have read recently of the racial tensions and outbreaks at Clinton, Tennessee, Montgomery, Alabama, and other places throughout the South as a result of integration efforts in schools, on buses, etc. Whatever view one takes toward integration, he probably, in theory at least, deplores mob violence, whether it is in attacking a minister who is escorting colored children to school, or dynamiting the home of an integrationist.

This week a new, or at least a little different, instance of violence occurred in Birmingham, Alabama, when a 29-year-old clerk, a white man who has been a frequent speaker at integration rallies was set upon by a group of hoodlums, all white. His car was wrecked, and stones and other missiles, as well as angry and unprintable words were hurled at him. Not only that, but he was fined $30 in court for gunning his car in a burst of speed to get away from the mob before possible fatal violence was done to his person. As a result of his experience, he says that he thinks it best he leave the state to avoid more trouble. He, quite naturally, feels that he wishes to, in his words, “tell the world” what is going on throughout the deep South regarding the racial situation. Washington announced that he would be permitted to submit a report to a U.S. Senate subcommittee regarding what happened and is happening.

Not only is the whole episode disgraceful, but worse, it seemed to be something of a symbol of the atmosphere through the area. Wonder if those doing the attacking do not go into their churches for worship and sing, “We are not divided, all one body we”? If so, how academic can you get about religion?

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To many, perhaps most, of us, children are the most wonderful things in the world. And at least some of us so cherish congenial home and family life where children are, that no sacrifice seems too great to be with them. This week, a statement of “Beatitudes for Parents” came to my attention that seems worth passing on. It goes like this:

Blessed are the parents who make their place with spilled milk and with mud, for such is the kingdom of childhood.

Blessed is the parent who engages not in the comparison of his child with others, for precious unto each is the rhythm of his own growth.

Blessed are the fathers and mothers who have learned laughter, for it is the music of the child’s world.

Blessed and wise are those parents who understand the goodness of time, for they make it not a sword that kills growth but a shield to protect.

Blessed and mature are they who without anger can say no, for comforting to the child is the security of firm decisions.

Blessed is the gift of consistency, for it is heart’s ease in childhood.

Blessed are they who accept the awkwardness of growth, for they are aware of the constant perilous choice between marred furnishing and damaged personalities.

Blessed are the teachable, for knowledge brings understanding and understanding brings love.

Blessed are the men and women who, in the midst of the unpromising mundane, give love, for they bestow the greatest of all gifts to each other, to their children, and in an ever-widening circle, to their fellow men.

Christianity’s season of penitence and prayers begins this coming Tuesday. It is the period of Lent, the 40 days (excluding Sundays) preceding Easter and the resurrection of Christ after his crucifixion. Traditionally, some of the days immediately preceding Lent are a time of high merriment. The name of the festivities, Mardi Gras, comes from the French term for the religious festival, Shrove Tuesday. “Mardi Gras” is literally “Fat Tuesday,” and that goes back to the ancient French housewives who made last-minute efforts to use up the fats that would be forbidden by the church in Lent. Shrove Tuesday’s real meaning is as the day of confession preparatory to Lent. Lent begins the next day, on Ash Wednesday, which gets its name from the ashes that used to be put on the heads of public penitents. Now the Roman Catholic Church puts the symbol on the foreheads of its faithful.

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Today in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, the U.S. celebration of the 500^th anniversary of the Moravians begins. Throughout the world, the yearlong celebration is observing a global chain of prayer for peace. This has been arranged so that on every day of the year, one Moravian church will be praying from midnight to midnight for the peace of the world, the continuance of the Christian church, and the growth of the Moravian movement. The Moravian mission in Western Tibet began the chain in January. It will move eastward in Europe through Czechoslovakia, the birthplace of the church in 1457, on to California, and then end in Dutch Guiana in South America. A Moravian bishop is credited with editing the first Protestant hymnal in 1501. The church also was the first Protestant denomination to reach international scope. In the U.S., Pennsylvania has most of the nation’s 50,000 Moravians. Bethlehem is the seat of the Northern body, and Winston-Salem, North Carolina, the head of the Southern division.

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Yesterday, the Vatican City and many other places throughout the year marked a double event. It was the birthday of Pope Pius and the anniversary of his election as supreme pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church in 1939. The main celebration to honor the pope will be a solemn pontifical Mass on March 12, the anniversary of his coronation.

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The head of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations says the official family of American Reform Judaism now has 540 “liberal temples” in the U.S. and Canada. Dr. Maurice Eisendrath adds that four new congregations were admitted in the first two months of this year. Eleven more congregations are applying for membership. Dr. Eisendrath states that at least 23 more would be awaiting admission if funds were sufficient. He says new housing areas and suburban developments have meant requests from all parts of the U.S. and Canada for aid in establishing new Jewish temples and religious schools.

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In Knoxville, Tennessee, a regional meeting of the Women’s Society of Christian Service of the Methodist Church has been told that the failure of the church to take a positive stand on social issues such as integration has permitted hoodlum elements in many communities to take over. The speaker was Bishop Richard C. Raines of Indianapolis. He said: “The church must be the conscience of the community. When the church only reflects the moral code of its members and fails to shine the piercing light of God’s judgment on human conduct it ceases to be the salt of the earth.” He emphasized that Methodists and other Protestants are in “dire danger” of permitting our churches to become museums. He listed four facets of integration as follows:

• Every person should have the right to work where he is capable;
• Every man should have the right to educate his children in public schools without artificial barriers;
• Every man should have the right to live where he can afford to live and should be accepted by the community as long as he is a good citizen. Christians, above all, should take the lead in stopping rock-throwings and bombings;
• The church should quickly cease to be the most segregated group in our society.

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Albany, New York: The New York State Council of Churches is against lowering the age at which a man can marry without his parents’ consent from 21 to 18. Speaking for the council, the Rev. Robert Withers told a legislative committee that lowering the age would lead to hasty and ill-considered marriages. He said too many young peoples had the erroneous idea that all sorts of problems could be solved by early marriage. Albany attorney Charles Tobin, representing the Roman Catholic Welfare Committee, said his group has not yet taken a stand on the question.

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Augusta, Maine: Roman Catholic lay leaders have threatened to shut down Augusta’s parochial schools unless the city provides the pupils with transportation. Such a move would compel the public schools to absorb 900 children now in Catholic schools. The city council refused bus transportation for parochial pupils even though it was approved last year in a referendum election.

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New York: The controversy over whether religious broadcasts should pay for radio and television time or should get it free will be an important topic at a meeting in New York next week. The meeting is that of the Broadcasting and Film Commission of the National Council of Churches. The national council took a stand last year that the broadcasting industry should furnish time for religious programs. It is difficult to see how such a stand could be justified if the religious programs are sectarian. If the government is prohibited from sponsoring one religion over another, then how can religious groups expect to use government force, indirectly, to compel private industry to do so?

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Chicago: The official newspaper of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Chicago has added fuel to the row over the film “Martin Luther.” The newspaper, New World, called it a hate-provoking movie. The newspaper censured the film especially for suppressing what it called the coarseness and violence which many historians say marked Luther’s character. The Catholic editorial caused television station WGN-TV to cancel a showing of the film. A Protestant group has protested to the Federal Communications Commission because of the ban.

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Williamsburg, Virginia: The General Board of the National Council of Churches had commended all church groups and individuals who are working to relieve racial tensions in the South. No names were mentioned in the resolution.

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Vatican City: Pope Pius’ pronunciation of the use of anesthetics this week appears to have settled a controversy that has agitated some Roman Catholics for many years. The pope declared that a doctor may give an aesthetic with a clear conscience when it is medically indicated, even if he knows it may shorten the patient’s life.

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With the controversy over Israel and her role in the Middle East continually in the headlines these days, a facet of the problem has made little in the way of news. That is the issue of the Jewish vote in this country, hinging perhaps on the position the U.S. takes on the matter of Israel’s withdrawal from Egypt. It is impossible to say just how much Jews vote as Jews. Many analyses of the so-called Jewish vote indicate that, other things being equal, Jews vote as they do for many reasons, only one of which is or may be a religious or socio-cultural bias. However, the Jews of the world have every right to be group conscious, in view of the perennial persecution to which they have been subjected, especially in Nazi Germany in recent years. But there is little doubt that the Middle East controversy could well crystallize a Jewish vote, just as did the impact of the Irish question produce an Irish vote during and immediately after World War I.

None with a memory of the bitter anti-British sentiments with which political candidates bought votes in the great Irish American communities was surprised when Mayor Wagner of New York scorned the visiting King Saud of Arabia, and refused him a municipal welcome in New York. Averell Harriman, governor of New York, backed Wagner in that position in all respects, and few were surprised. Whatever the motives of the mayor and the governor may have been, practical politicians counted their action as likely to hold or win them friends and votes among the very large Jewish community of New York City. Doubtless also how vividly the current dispute over Israel will be reflected in future U.S. elections. It may depend to a considerable extent on whether the United Nations, with U.S. support, takes a position that can be interpreted as penalizing Israel and how severe those penalties may be. If the Israeli have their backs up and the U.N. must hit hard to put them down, the blow may leave a big and perhaps ugly scar on the face of U.S. domestic politics. Fortunately, at this particular moment, it looks as if that eventuality may have been avoided.

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Four weeks ago I quoted some excerpts from and recommended the reading of an article entitled “What do You Mean ‘Religious Emphasis Week’?,” by Dr. Leland Miles of Hanover College, Indiana. The article appeared in the winter 1956 Issue of the A.A.U.P. Bulletin. Both organization and publication tend toward the conservative side in education, and both are as American as the name of the organization indicates.

The viewpoint of Dr. Miles, as set forth in the article, is that in most cases, so-called religious emphasis weeks are largely occasions where only Christian (usually Protestant) representatives are brought before the student body, with a result that, instead of stimulating thought and clarifying convictions, they constitute largely mutual admiration societies that merely confirm prejudices. He suggests that it would be an “exhilarating way to spend a real religious emphasis week … to have representatives of the world’s major religions appear before the student body.”

Your reactions to his suggestion have been about what I had expected and even hoped, for they were both for and against the idea. Had they been all one of the other, it would have been disturbing, for unanimity breeds stagnation, and stagnation is not conducive to thought, growth, or progress. What was surprising was that some of your reactions opposing the idea were based on the fear, expressed or implied, that to bring such representatives before college young people might lessen their faith in Christianity. Does that mean that our faith is so fragile we dare not submit it to open competition in the marketplace with contrasting thought systems in the field of religion? Do we believe in free enterprise only in the world of material objects, not in the realm of ideas?

Whether one agrees or disagrees with Dr. Miles’ suggestion is, within itself, relatively unimportant. What is important is the stubborn fact that in the world of today, bigotry and intolerance are twin luxuries we can no longer afford. We who believe in Christianity are a minority group in the 2.3 billion people that make up humanity of this planet.

The most important ingredient in the peace we hope to forge is a better understanding among people of diverse cultures. Iron curtains raised by the fearful will not bring that understanding about. It will be brought about only by creating an atmosphere that will permit the greatest possible exchange of differing viewpoints. And one can understand a philosophy that conflicts with his own without embracing that philosophy. To assume otherwise would be as ridiculous as to say that because I know the nature of electricity I cannot avoid electrocuting myself. Any religion, including Christianity, will live only so long as it gives purpose and meaning to the lives of people. When it no longer does this, it will perish, and all the great walls erected by the timid cannot prevent its decline. We may not like the idea, but it can be documented by the whole history of human experience.